THE Supreme Court has affirmed a decision of the Sandiganbayan mandating the reconveyance to the government of the 24 percent block of shares or 753.8 million shares in San Miguel Corp.  acquired through the coconut levy and registered in the names of the Coconut Industry Investment Fund and its holding companies.

The controversial levy was collected from the country’s coconut farmers from 1973 to 1982.

Voting 11-0, the high court, through Associate Justice Presbitero J. Velasco Jr., said the CIIF shares in SMC valued at about P100 billion could be used for the benefit of the country’s coconut industry and its farmers.

A copy of the SC decision was not immediately available.

The block of shares was earlier ordered by the high court, through its Sept, 17, 2009 ruling,  converted from common shares into preferred shares.

The High Court noted that the Presidential Commission on Good Government has held on to the sequestered shares for more than 20 years, and now may be the right time for it to relinquish its role in light of claims that the sequestration of the shares “has frightened away investors and stunted growth of the company.”

It said that the conversion was necessary to preserve the value of the 753,848,312 sequestered CIIF SMC common shares.

The magistrates who concurred with the ruling were Chief Justice Renato C. Corona, and Associate Justices Lucas P. Bersamin, Mariano C. Del Castillo, Roberto A. Abad, Martin S. Villarama Jr., Jose Portugal Perez, Jose Catral Mendoza, Ma. Lourdes P. Sereno, Bienvenido L. Reyes, and Estela Perlas-Bernabe.

Senior Associate Justice Antonio T. Carpio inhibited, being one of the original petitioners in a case to declare the coconut levy public funds before he joined the Supreme Court.  The court had ruled that coconut levy is imbued with public interest.

Associate Justices Teresita J. Leonardo de Castro and Diosdado M. Peralta also inhibited because they were members of the Sandiganbayan that decided the case, while Associate Justice Arturo D. Brion is on official leave.

Earlier, the high court had ordered the conversion of the block of shares in the names of CIIF and its companies from common shares to preferred shares.